iPhone OS 3.0 released, AT&T wipes ass with it, turns off MMS

It’s been just over 9 months since I last talked about my iPhone, so I thought it was time to remedy that situation (cue everyone rolling their eyes at me and whispering…”GREAT”). On Wednesday, Apple made available the latest update to the iPhone’s operating system, v3.0. Listening to the buildup of this OS update (along with the release of the new iPhone version 3G S today), I couldn’t help but get excited. So many new features were being added including multimedia messaging (MMS) which has surprisingly been missing from the very first iteration of the iPhone until now. If you receive a picture via text, the text message asks you to log in to a separate website with a userid and password (given within the text) to see the pic. This worked, maybe 50% of the time. Maybe. Seems odd the greatest phone on the planet Earth could not send/receive a picture via text message. But that’s neither here nor there as MMS is in the “new features list” on Apple.com (see below, third in the list) and after I download and install it to my iPhone, everything is going to be cotton candy and rainbows and fluffy bunnies and kittens.

So, when I connected my iPhone 3G to my laptop Thursday morning and proceeded to download the new OS, I was giddy as a schoolgirl. I had the requisite pics of my crotch on my iPhone’s camera reel and they were ready to be sent to all my friends via text message. It was gonna be EPIC. Legend–wait for it–ary. Then I did the install.

When the install was done, I noticed my Texts icon changed to a Messages icon and I got excited. But when I went into my Messages section it looked the same. There was no extra camera button to allow me to add pics to my messages. Then I thought, “Oh, you may have to go into settings to turn on the MMS features!” So I go into Settings and check the Phone and Messaging sections. Nothing. I start getting a little pissed. Next stop, Google.

Thanks to the iPhone Blog, I found out that MMS settings have been hidden for AT&T users.

Here’s what my Messages settings should look like:

Here’s what my Messages settings actually look like:

For some reason AT&T has decided not to turn on MMS messaging capabilities at this time. AT&T claims they need to make regular “network upgrades” that have nothing to do with their 3G network before they can turn it on. They vaguely mention that MMS will be turned on “late summer” and not cost any more than SMS messaging (thank the lord for small favors). WTF, AT&T?! One of the biggest upgrades to the iPhone OS and you decide NOT to turn it on?! It is also mentioned in the article that AT&T is giving the runaround on when they will offer another capability in 3.0, tethering. Tethering would allow you to hook up your iPhone to your laptop and surf the web from your phone’s connection. All other mobile carriers overseas (iPhones are available all over the world with other carriers, the AT&T exclusivity only pertains to the US) are allowing it. AT&T is the only one that’s blocking MMS (some other carriers are temporarily blocking tethering). It’s pretty much pissed off every US iPhone owner because even the most basic dumb phones can send MMS messages. This just adds more fuel to the fire about why Apple decided to make the iPhone exclusive to AT&T in the US. Honestly, it didn’t bother me until this very moment. MMS was the biggest thing I wanted out of the OS 3.0 update, and now I have to wait a few months until I get it. I’m not a happy camper.

i dont understand. i mean at&t does suck but.. apple had to know they were not going to release mms yet. so i think they shouldent of mentiond it or atleast make it a big deal. they should of just quietly announced it and late in summer when at&t is gonna release mms make a 3.5 or 3.1 or some sorta update not getting everyones hopes up just to make everyone pissed. and tethering i mean if you can afford a laptop and iphone you should have wifi and when it does come out i think it will be atleast 10$ a month which sucks

I agree shawn. One of the things that would have made it hard to keep MMS quiet is that EVERYONE ELSE ON EARTH outside the US is getting it day 1. The gadget blogs were never going to keep that under wraps. AT&T should have just sacked up and got it done.

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